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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Norks, SKors appear to be coordinating strategy on nuke talks |
| 2005-04-06 |
| From the Rantburg duplicity desk department...via, East Asia Intel, subscription req'd. JEJU, South Korea — On the same day that North Korea sought to put the burden of reducing tensions in Northeast Asia on the U.S. rather than itself, a liberal South Korean policymaker close to Seoul's government made the same proposal. Wotta coincidence! Speaking at a conference on this idyllic island off Korea's southern coast, Lim Dong-Won, the original architect of the South Korean policy of reconciliation with North Korea, called for "mutual threat reduction" as the key to resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. That same day North Korea called for talks on arms reduction rather than nuclear weapons. Lim's remarks, at a forum sponsored by the Sejong Institute, the Korea Foundation and Joongang Ilbo, a major newspaper whose owner is now Korea's ambassador to Washington, appeared carefully crafted to fit in with North Korea's latest demand. Nice for the SKors to be so accommodating. "In order to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, we must find a starting point in the Mutual Threat Reduction (MTR)," said Lim, who forged the sunshine policy of reconciliation as the centerpiece of the presidency of Kim Dae-Jung. MTR, said Lim, "reduces both the U.S.-perceived threat from North Korea and the threat felt by North Korea from the U.S." A threat, by the way, deduced by Nork sales of missiles, and various other nefarious types of goods to other Axis of Evil countries. Lim, who served as director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service and then as unification minister under Kim Dae-Jung, told the forum: "We should persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons by providing an environment in which North Korea could be relieved of the threat from others and does not need to possess nuclear weapons." Yeah, lets give the Norks a more secure environment to opress and starve their people on their promise of getting rid on their nukes. Sounds like a plan. Lim now chairs the Sejong Institute, a private think tank with close ties to the South Korean government. Which means it's the SKor govt talking. With MTR as a starting point, Lim said, "the only way to solve the nuclear problem is to apply the give-and-take approach." SKor gives and Kimmie takes. That formula "can take the routes of a comprehensive approach that includes diplomacy, security, economy and trade issues," or, alternatively, "a package settlement approach" and "a simultaneous implementation approach." Simultaneous implementation. Just don't look over your shoulder. OK. On the count of three. While Lim was talking, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency called for transforming multilateral talks on its nuclear weapons program into arms reduction talks - a variation on the mutual threat reduction approach advocated by Lim. Another coincidence. My, my, my. Pyongyang based its plea on the premise that North Korea was already a nuclear power and should resume six-party talks on equal terms with all the others at the table. The other participants in the talks, from which North Korea has said it's withdrawing, include the United States, China and Russia, all of which have nuclear weapons, as well as Japan and South Korea. The North Korean statement, while couched in much the same language as some of Lim's remarks, deepened and strengthened North Korea's position. "Time has gone for talking about a give-and-take like the freeze of nuclear weapons program and compensation WTF???! Compensation? Go ask Hyundai for compensation. at the six-party talks," said the KCNA statement in contrast to Lim's call for a "give-and-take approach." The statement echoed Lim's remarks, however, with its emphasis on "comprehensive measures" for denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Among other demands, the statement called for Washington to give up its "nuclear threats" - a condition that U.S. officials have often countered by saying the U.S. withdrew whatever nukes it had on Korean soil during the presidency of the first George Bush. Lim's remarks appeared not only to support the North Korean position but also to counter whatever Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice might have hoped to accomplish during her visit to Korea last month. In fact, his comments reflected the sense that Rice's conversations while in Seoul had essentially fallen upon deaf ears, especially during her meeting with President Roh Moo-Hyun. ***I can't hear youuuuu!! Lalalalala!*** Lim's assumption, shared by most speakers at the forum, was that the United States remained hostile to North Korea and against serious efforts at drawing the North back to the negotiating table. Without alluding to Rice's visit, Lim said "the U.S should accept North Korea as its negotiating part" and "through a serious negotiation" should "put to the test North Korea's proposal of exchanging its nuclear dismantlement with the U.S. dismantlement of its hostile policy toward North Korea." Apparently accepting North Korean fears of a "preemptive strike" or strengthened economic sanctions, Lim said, "one-sided drastic measures to coerce capitulation or collapse of North Korea will only worsen the current situation" and "we must place priority on the nuclear nonproliferation" rather than regime change. Lim praised Selig Harrison, a U.S. analyst who has come to represent his position in Washington and abroad, saying that the proposal for ending the North Korean "nuclear crisis" as advocated by Harrison's Task Force on U.S. Korea policy "can serve as an excellent guideline." Harrison, also speaking at the same forum, was pessimistic about the chances of rapprochement under the current Bush administration. "The ascendancy of hard-line policymakers in the U.S. debate over how to deal with North Korea has strengthened proponents of nuclear weapons in the long-standing internal debate within North Korea over how to deal with the United States," Harrison said. Acknowledging "the prospects for a step-by-step denuclearization agreement with U.S. participation during the next four years are minimal," Harrison stressed the basic proposals of his task force. He suggested that the four powers closest to North Korea in Asia -- China, Russia, Japan and South Korea -- "bear the principal financial burden" of offering "to reward North Korea for denuclearization," in which it would agree to "re-freeze its plutonium program and to relinquish plutonium reprocessed" since the breakdown of the Geneva framework agreement in late 2002. Harrison, citing a number of hard-liners in the Bush administration, clearly believes the U.S. wants to bring about the downfall of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il despite numerous U.S. declarations that it has no such intention. "A commitment by the four powers to join in preserving North Korea's territorial integrity and sovereignty, would greatly enhance regional security and could well compel the United States to reconsider its regime-change policy," he said. Appeasement 101. What is the 2ID doing in Korea??? |
| Posted by:Alaska Paul |